With a wide open lane Kylor Berkman from a Bruce Richardson pass had only Gettysburg's goalie between the back of the net and another birth to the NCAA Finals. Berkman buried the shot and the drama was over!
The double overtime thriller comes only days after SU's goalies, Riley Clark and Zach Krissoff, were arrested for vandalism. The call for the net came to Junior Nick Fiorentino who made 8 saves in the win including a nice one at the end of regulation in which he won the ball back for his attackers by chasing after the ball getting in front of the Gettysburg attacker. Not much pressure for this kid who only had every eye on him! What else can he say other than he did his job how he was supposed to do it.
Faced with the most dire of situations Salisbury kept the game close knowing that Gettysburg would leave nothing left on the field. Most teams after sustaining such a shocking blow to the core principle of what a team is would fold or not play with purpose. Not Salisbury! Salisbury, though at the beginning seemed a bit sluggish, still matched what Gettysburg gave them, competed, and finished with the win.
Coach Jim Berkman had a monumental task in front of him; to solidify his team back together so they could play focused and with their intended calling. That calling was to best represent what any school team means; to exhibit what is best in the School, Team, and Principle! The Seagulls did just that!
Two senseless players in a senseless and a pointless act could not disrupt or dissolve the Gulls' resolve to show why they are the best team in the nation in lacrosse! Proving that any doubters were wrong these young men played with great integrity, hustle, and un-dying commitment to their program, school, and community! How else could this game shape up but with constant drama with two great programs playing as hard as they could? Coaches, fans, and players could not expect anythng more than this type of game!
Coach Berkman and his players could best show what SU's athletics is about with a win. The antics of two did not keep the community at bay from attending, Seagull Stadium was packed. Disdain and boycotting the game was obviously not the path everyone took, though it is so easy to play the blame game of guilty by association and gross generalizations of a group which often we can fall into.
Only two did something horrendously wrong! Their names are off the roster much like the act of removing tyrants names from the annuls of history on monuments they built for themselves. Infamy will follow them and we can only let justice take it's course and can only hope they rehabilitate themselves into better individuals.
Two players wanted to have it all and in their own way. 47 just wanted to play what they loved to do for everyone as best as they could!
Congratulations Salisbury Men's Lax!
Salisbury will face Cortland State again in the National Championship Game in Foxbororo Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium at 1:30 next Sunday. Cortland defeated Ithica (NY) to advance for the Championship 16-5. This will be the third straight year that Salisbury and Cortland have met in the finals with SU winning 2 of the three match-ups.
Scoring was balanced with 8 players racking up a goal. Bruce Richardson had 2 goals and 2 assists to lead Seagull scoring. Berkman and Jake Delillo both scored two goals each.
The light rain made it a little slick and footing a bit suspect, but played no major part in the outcome of the game.
For complete stats go to - http://livestats.prestosports.com/salisbury/mlax/mlacrosse.html
Salisbury's Men's Lax Page - http://www.suseagulls.com/sports/mlax/index
5 comments:
Thanks Nick!
Great up to the minute reporting! Were the stands full and did it rain?
Great run yesterday too! Congratulations!
This shows that the two THUGS really were not the STARS they thought they were.
I was so happy to hear the news about the win! And yes, thanks to Nick for a job well done!
Thank you guys and I'm glad you liked it!
To Nick Fiorentino: Great job at a time that you had to show what you are made of. Great coaching on Berkmans part as I am sure he had to make many other adjustments on the field. While the two vandals deal with their situation, This will be a life long memory for Nick and a great story for the rest of us. We will all forget about the two black eyes from the SU LX team but we will always remember how this young man stepped up to perform when he was called on.
Hey! There's a few too many exclamation points in this blog to consider it real "reporting!" It loses its emphasis when it's used like this! Maybe try cutting it out! We get the point without mentally adding in your puppyish glee!
Thanks!
Otherwise, keep up the work!
Post a Comment